Relationships between women's cognition of the menopause and climacteric symptoms

Abstract

We explored the relationships between women's cognition of the menopause and climacteric symptoms. Postmenopausal women (n=200) were asked to complete a questionnaire. Seven types of cognitions regarding the menopause were extracted by analyzing the Sentence Completion Test (SCT) descriptions on two axes; the influence of the menopause on a woman's life, and the way she coped with it: Active-Welcomer, the Passive-Welcomer, the Neutral-Active, the Neutral-Passive, Crisis, Resigned, and Ambivalent. The Kupperman Kohnenki Shohgai Index (KKSI) was used to assess climacteric symptoms. The relationships between climacteric symptoms and the seven cognitive types were analyzed by an ANOVA, which indicated a significant main effect of menopause cognition types on several climacteric symptom scores. The Neutral-Passive cognition type showed the lightest climacteric symptoms. It was suggested that women who accepted the menopause as a natural phenomenon were able to cope with it more successfully.